Hi, Herman here.
A few years ago I started writing every day. It started as just 2 or 3 sentences a day.
Intentionally. I knew that if I decided to write a whole page a day, that I would write a handful of days in a
row,
and then the habit would slowly disappear, along with my good intentions.
I had read and heard of the many great benefits associated with keeping a journal, yet I had my doubts.
How could writing about my today improve my tomorrow?
Fast forward 3 years and I have written every day since.
That’s over 1000 days of my life logged! And did it help? Sure, but not in the ways I expected.
I remembered my days more clearly.
The act of sitting down at the end of the day and thinking “what happened today?” forced me to deconstruct and
reflect on my day.
So many of my days were blurring by with nothing really separating one from the next, and here I was picking
at the details. “How do I feel? What did I do?
How was the weather?” Though this act of forced surface-level introspection my days became more cohesive
chunks of life that I could quantify and examine.
There was a feeling of mental offload and catharsis that came with journaling.
This was not because I was enjoying the writing (I don’t think I did back then). The catharsis came afterward.
I realised that I was ruminating on so many things, spinning in my own head with no escape. This took up the
ability to think about other things, ponder other thoughts, or just chill. Once the words were out on paper it
was almost like my journal said “There you go. All written down so you won’t forget. Now go ahead and relax
your brain.”.
I experienced long term reflection. Erling Kagge (a Norwegian adventurer who has walked to both the poles) put
it quite nicely. “The secret to walking to the South Pole is to put one foot in front of another, and to do
this enough times.” We tend to not notice the progress we are making, whether it be mental health or quality
of writing. It’s natural for us to not see this progress as it’s happening in very small steps. Being able to
go back and read about where I was half a year ago was very eye-opening. I can see what motivates me, what
makes me sad. I could map out what season I am the happiest in. There is so much information packed in a
journal that is ripe for self-improvement.
I’m sure there are more benefits that I’m missing, but these are the ones that made me a person who writes
words for himself. I’ve become very attached to my journals. It is a habit I am sure I will stick with for the
rest of my life.
This is why I build Some words for me. So everyone can build this habit in our distracted world, one or
two sentences at a time.
Here are some features I'm working on:
- Hashtag categorizing entries (done)
- Weekly reflection messages
- Different modes (gratitude, dream journal, etc)
- Export journal entries and download (done)
Love,
Herman
For any other questions, mail me.